


After

by tofsla



Category: Mumintroll | Moomins Series - Tove Jansson
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-25
Updated: 2011-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-28 03:21:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/303177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tofsla/pseuds/tofsla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Toft leaves the valley.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sallyislike](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sallyislike/gifts).



> Just a tiny bit of Toft for you, because he's one of my favourites too.

Everything has changed, Toft knows.

The happy family have come to life and become people, and so the idyll is spoilt, because real people have arguments and are grumpy for no reason and even the best mother can't cope with everything. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is a big thing, and can be terribly difficult to get used to.

He knew when he left them to their winter sleep in the house in the valley that he wouldn't be able to dream them any more, because they had begun to dream themselves. He knew it even before their boat had landed. Perhaps he knew it from the moment he arrived in the valley.

Perhaps a dream can only get so big before you have to let it loose. But a dream can also get so big that it's a relief to let it go.

He walks alone through the sleeping winter woods, quiet and careful, and doesn't make a single sound. He hardly makes a mark in the frozen crust of the snow. And he wonders where he's going now that the Hemulen's boat is gone and what it means to be him without the dream of the family. And he thinks:

If I tried, could I build a dream of myself?

And who would I be?

It's a curious, tentative sort of thought. But it buoys him up a little. And then he thinks:

After all, I'm free.


End file.
